Hot Potato
by Hedgi
Summary: Kara's heroics aren't limited to newsworthy events, or even just to people. That's just not who she is. Sometimes, for the greater good, rules have to be broken. Particularly if kittens are involved. NO PAIRING. GENFIC.
1. Chapter 1

Because there is a serious lack of genfic in the world and gosh dangit I'mma write it.

* * *

Kara was a Good Kid™. She had a healthy respect for justice and rules, she tried to stay out of trouble as much as she could, and until recently (and still, recently) was more keen on Hufflepuff than Gryffindor. Loyalty and Fair play and mutual respect and Hard Work were not bad things, after all. And there were bonuses to staying on your boss's good side, like not getting fired. If that meant putting up with a lot of rules, some pointless, others extremely important, Kara wasn't going to argue too strenuously.

But sometimes, Rules had to be broken.

Sometimes, there was a greater good.

Sometimes, that greater good was a sopping wet lump of brown fluff with large gold-green eyes and the most pitiful mew Kara had ever heard.

She crouched, trying to keep her skirt from getting wetter than it already was. "Hey, kitty. It's ok. I won't hurt you."

The kitten mewed again, shrinking back against the sodden box it had taken shelter in. Kara dug in her purse for something to lure it out with, finally finding a packet of potato chips. A few wouldn't hurt the cat, right? She crinkled the bag, then held out a broken bit of chip, hoping.

The kitten stretched out its head, peering at the woman and the food, then cautiously stepped forward, through puddles that came nearly up to her belly. She chewed at the chip, then licked Kara's fingers for more grease and salt. Kara bit her lip, then reached forward to scoop the kitten close. Any protest was cut off by the kitten realizing that Kara was warm.

The muddy kitten held inside her raincoat, against her sweater, Kara slipped inside the Newspaper building where it was warm. She couldn't just leave the kitten in the cold, but she wasn't sure what exactly to do now. Hide it in a drawer?

Winn would help. And James. She was sure of it.

"Ok, Potato Chip, let's get you dried off."

* * *

Nothing in her life had ever gone According To Plan, and Kara was starting to wonder why she wasted the energy making Plans and wondering why they always crashed and burned around her. She managed to keep Potato Chip occupied and out of trouble the rest of that day, with help from James and Winn. Her sweater would never be the same, but she'd dried off the poor thing and Winn, after sneezing twice and declaring the bedraggled creature the cutest thing on the planet, had swiped a carafe of milk from the breakroom.

Unfortunately operation: keep kitty a secret was going about as well as operation: go one day without getting yelled at (or to) by Ms. Grant. By lunch, four people had noticed the sound of purring coming from the desk, and two more had come to reclaim the milk carafe.  
All had promised to keep the secret from Ms. Grant, for what that was worth, and Potato Chip seemed to relish the attention.

Of course, when Kara tried to leave her in the apartment when she headed off to work the next morning, the fluffy brown kitten had yowled pitifully, and loudly, and Kara wasn't more than half way down the stairs when her hearing picked up the sound of falling furniture. She found Potato Chip under a tipped chair.

"Ok, you can come with me, but sshhhhh." Kara hoped the cat understood.

* * *

Thus became tradition. Kara smuggled the kitten into the office, having cleaned out a desk drawer and lined it with her favorite sweater. Coworkers, from reporters, to editors, to photographers, to the janitorial staff all dropped by as discreetly as possible to drop off small toys or treats, or just give the kitten a quick scratch. Slowly, the "chip" was dropped from her name, as Potato grew rounder and rounder, fat on kitty treats and the ill-gotten gains of Kara's unguarded lunches. Several of the others working on that floor took it in turns to hide the kitten in their own laps, desk drawers, or boxes at their feet whenever there was a risk of an inspection, passing the munchkin cat around the office and smuggling her to other floors when need be. No one wanted to risk her getting found out.

Winn stocked up on allergy meds, and James learned the hard way not to let his shoe laces come undone in Potato's presence.

"Morale seems to be up," Cat Grant said one morning as Kara buttoned her coat over her shirt, which had cat fur on it. "I must be doing something right. Kerra, did you remember to schedule my appointment with—"

"Yes, it's at four, like you wanted," Kara checked her glasses, and smiled. "And dinner reservations at La Note for seven tomorrow."

"Good. It's been too long since I had a decent bouillabaisse. Honestly. Well, go on, I pay you for something. Shoo. I have things to do."

Kara left sighing in relief…until she noticed that Potato was very distinctly not in her drawer.

"Winn?" she sidled over. "Have you seen Potato?"

"Is she…not in her draw—oooh. Ok, that's…probably bad. Um. I'll start looking."

With Mary from Fashion, James, and two interns from Central city on her side, Kara started her search, straining her hearing. How had the munchkin kitten, with her tiny stubby legs, gotten so far?

"Uh, Kari?" a new intern poked her shoulder, looking more than a little skittish. "Ms. Grant asked me to find you?"

Kara was glad there were no mind readers in the building that she knew of because every curse she knew, was going through her head, even as she plastered a smile on. This was…not so good.

"You wanted to see me?" Kara asked Ms. Grant, her chair swiveled away from the door.

"Yes," Cat spun around slowly, and Kara's eyes widened. Worse than she'd thought. "It seems we have an intruder."

Potato was sitting on Cat Grant's pristine white skirt, purring up a storm.

"Oh, Um, I—I" Kara stammered. "ThatiIs a… remarkably…not dangerous intruder?" she winced.

"I don't know why I didn't think of it before," Cat said, giving Potato a quick, awkward stroke. "What better mascot for CatCo, than a cat?"

"Uh…"

"That was rhetorical, Kerri. A purebred probably would look better, one of those elegant ones. But this one seems to have found us, so that will do."

"Um, excuse me, what?" Kara blinked. Was she not fired?

"Well, obviously I'm too busy to take care of it, so you'll have to find a place for …her. If you can't keep her, find another employee, someone here must want a kitten. You'll need to go to the store, get whatever it is cats need. Food, collar…a place to… do the necessary…Bring the receipts to accounting." Cat waved a hand airily. Potato blinked.

"I will get right on that, Ms. Grant."

"Good. And send out a company email about this. Maybe a naming poll, help employees feel like they actually have a say in it. I suppose it's their mascot as well." She sighed. "Not much of a beauty, but readers adore cutesy. Well, what are you waiting for? Go on."

Kara nodded, waved to Potato, and made her retreat.

Winn was waiting at her desk.

"Sooo what was that?"

"Good news is, I'm getting reimbursed for the cat litter I bought. Bad news is I'm not sure Ms. Grant will go for the name "Potato" for our apparent mascot."

* * *

More of Potato's adventures will follow. She's sure to have plenty.  
Feel free to say hi (it's my birthday!)


	2. Chapter 2

Set during Human for a Day

* * *

Cat Grant had been unsure, at first, of allowing her assistant's little pet project, the kitten she'd found and brought in, but part of her—a very small part—had thought it was sweet. And it had brought moral up, having the little munchkin cat around the offices, passed from desk to desk as if they though she wouldn't notice. If anything, her workers had gotten more productive, less stressed, and honestly, that was acceptable. Besides, the next time she needed a fluff piece to show the public that she was, in fact, human—with a soul, even, imagine that, it might be useful to be able to show off the story of the orphaned kitten, brought in and given affection from an entire office.

Also, the little furball was adorable, and honestly, only some demon like her mother would be able to say no to that face. So the cat—she was fairly certain her assistant—Kellie? Kerra?—called it "Potato"—stayed, and was, on occasion, welcomed into the office. Now more than ever, Cat Grant was glad she'd made the executive decision to allow it, because the world was falling apart, and the feel of the warm, soft fur under her hand was soothing.

Supergirl was missing, the city was a disaster zone, people were dying out there, and she didn't have the luxury to be afraid, or panicky. The IT was working on getting a livefeed set up, so that she could say her own piece, tell people what they needed to hear, what they should hear, not more fearmongering from that Maxwell Lord idiot.

The kitten—she was not going to call it Potato—purred louder than ever, nuzzling her hand and blinking slowly, as if she thought to reassure. Well, at least she wasn't running around, getting underfoot and needing reassurance herself, but honestly, where was Kerri? Kerri—Kira? Kaya?—should be the one taking care of the cat right now, she had a speech to write and shove as much pathos in as possible.

But no. No, she liked having the warmth, the gentle rumble. She had to tell hundreds of thousands of people things would be alright if they sought the higher ground, if they worked together, helped each other, took care of each other. It was nice to have someone, even just a cat, to offer that same comfort. She was really going to have to thank Kara when she returned from wherever she was. Not hiding. That honestly wasn't the girl's style. No doubt she was on another floor, doing what she could even with that cold and broken arm.

And the speech she'd started to scrawl out was not "stuffed" with pathos like a middle schooler's diary, or an idealist's op-ed. She had to appeal to the public, yes, and God, pathos was a tool for the time, but not if it was forced. It couldn't be forced, or scripted, not today.

"Mom!" Cat's heart jolted as the IT stepped aside and her son barreled in, clothing mussed, one shoe missing. The kitten—not Potato honestly—leaped down with a thump as Cat pulled Carter into a hug.

"Carter, what on—" She demanded. Carter was supposed to be safe.

"They sent everyone who could get home, home, and—and Mrs. Rose dropped me off, cuz the school's too close to another fault line and they worried, and I knew the way, and, and Supergirl's gone, and I was worried about you, and Mr. Winn and Ms. Kara," He said into her shoulder, more trembly than he had been since the last time she'd picked him up after one of the bullies had tried to punch him. Cat had made certain that Scotty Blanch had been expelled for that stunt. Over her son's shoulder, Cat gave the IT guy a stern look. It wouldn't do for anyone to think her weak or uncomposed for comforting her child. He seemed to understand, busying himself with his job.

"Carter, I know you're scared, sweetie. But everything's going to be alright. From what people tell me, you were very, very brave on that train, and I need you to be brave today, too, ok? I know that Supergirl is—not here right now. She's only one person, and there's a lot of disaster going around. So what we all have to do is our best without her. We made it through a lot before she was here, or Superman, for that matter. And what do all those books you read always say?"

"That everyone can be a hero, even if it's not in a big way?" Carter wrinkled his nose, still breathing too quickly and shallowly for comfort. Cat couldn't blame him for being afraid. "But those are stories. This isn't like Harry Potter or Star Wars or, or Epicish or Tortall, or—"  
"Stories come from somewhere," Cat said, "from this world. All those writers live in this world—well, maybe they don't think they do, but that's not the point. That message is what we have to all believe in, or—well, things may get worse." She didn't bother to sugar coat the truth, she never did. "I have to give a statement, ok? Here." With a flash of inspiration, she lifted the cat from the ground. "I told you about our mascot, right? Why don't you keep her safe for us, ok? I bet someone has some treats you can give her. Just stick close, and be careful."

Carter took the kitten from his mom and rubbed her head gently. She purred at him, nestling into his arms and licking at his arm. He managed a laugh, flinching at how it tickled "What's her name?"  
"Potato," Cat sighed. "Her name's Potato."  
Carter hugged Potato close for the rest of the day, tucking her under his chin and whispering the words of his mom's speech to her as if he could translate them. The kitten calmed him, and he hoped he calmed her, even when a second aftershock shook the building. She clung to him as they hurried from the building, and he could see the smoke.  
"It's ok, it's ok, it's ok," Cat whispered to her son, and Carter whispered to the cat. Repeating the words made them seem more true.

Cat hadn't meant to leave him alone, but she found a safe, sheltered place and hugged him again. "I need to go make sure everyone's ok. Can you wait here for a minute?" looking around, she spotted the IT guy who had helped. "You work for me, yes? Make sure nothing happens to my son." She hardly gave him time to nod before taking off as swiftly as heels would allow. A quick circuit, make sure everyone was accounted for, and thank God they all were. She may not know all their names, but the heads of departments had lists and records, and it seemed that they at the very least had listened to her words, supporting each other. She had expected that. She was, after all, a voice of reason, someone to be listened to. She expected the noise, and the chaos, and the helping.  
There was another aftershock tremor, and Cat Grant ditched her heels and ran toward the plaza where she'd left Carter and the techy.  
She did not expect to see Supergirl offering Potato her hand to sniff, and her son comfort, but there it was, and she allowed her heartbeat to calm, just enough.  
"I bet your mom is so proud of you, for being so brave," the hero was saying. "I have to go and help, but she'll be back soon, I'm sure of it. Take good care of your kitty."  
And Supergirl was gone, shooting off toward another pillar of smoke, another catastrophe.  
"Mom, Supergirl likes cats," Carter explained as Potato circled in his lap.  
He was alright. He was safe. Supergirl had returned, but even without her, stories still poured in of everyday kindnesses, of small acts of heroism. Potato blinked, fluffy and soft, circled up with her tail brushing against Cat's arm as she sat down to check her bleeding feet.  
Everything was going to be alright.

* * *

Hope you like it. More will come eventually.

also please note that this is a Gen fic. there will be no romance whatsoever. no pairings. at all. please do not ask for them, you will not get them. 0 shipping. none. nada. zip. I ask that, if you review, you don't just ask for a pairing, because that's a waste of your time, and of my hopes. Thank you.


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